THROUGHOUT his Anfield career, Harry Kewell's big-game hunting has carried all the threat and potency of a cap gun.

He left the Carling Cup final arena a dispirited injury victim before he could even force a sweat.

His Champions League final experience was even briefer, and saw some supporters cruelly questioning his attitude.

And injury ensured he didn't even make last season's epic semi-final showdowns with Chelsea.

Injury also ended this latest big game early.

But that's where the comparison ends.

Because for 77 minutes, just when it mattered most, Harry Kewell delivered.

On a day Jose Mourinho decided wingers were a luxury he could do without, Harry Kewell revelled in the wide-open spaces of Old Trafford - and Liverpool profited spectacularly.

He tormented Geremi, he troubled Asier Del Horno, he punished Paolo Ferreira . . . anybody the Chelsea coach decided to employ in the fullback positions was given an uncomfortable afternoon.

And his full-back beating dashes were always followed by a quality of cross which caused problems.

Admitting that this just might have been the most important performance Harry Kewell had produced under his stewardship, Benitez purred: "Last season we had problems in the wide areas, but Harry can give us a lot of things. He can beat players, on the left and sometimes on the right, and he is a player who is always important for us. He can cross, he can shoot, he can do a lot of things.

"He has played very well all this season."

When Kewell is not a hundred per cent fit, he all-too-willingly seeks out the easy option. Check back. Pass the ball inside. Don't try and beat a man. Right now he is fitter than he has ever been.

In the first half he beat two men on the right before drilling a shot into the side-netting.

He romped spectacularly down the left before feeding Garcia, who was forced out.

He charged half the length of the pitch before finding Gerrard with another pinpoint cross on the stroke of half-time. Gerrard cut back to Garcia and he missed, but his form and his enthusiasm to take on defenders meant that neither Geremi nor Del Horno could get forward themselves.

Both exited the action long before Kewell.

Within seconds of the restart he beat Geremi before crossing again.

Makelele was the nonplussed victim on the hour when Garcia was the recipient of the cut-back, this time Cudicini fumbling wide.

It was a big performance in a big match - and surely dismissed questions about the size of Kewell's commitment.

The other match-winning contribution came from Anfield's other great peripheral, Luis Garcia.

For all his hair-tearing tendencies, he has the priceless ability to snatch sugar-sweet, crucial goals on the very biggest of stages.

And his exquisitely dispatched lob in the 52nd minute means he can now boast two semi-final winners against Chelsea, to go with strikes against Juventus, Bayer Leverkusen, Arsenal, two Merseyside derbies, in fact the only one of Liverpool's main rivals not to have suffered at his shooting boots is Manchester United.

And you wouldn't bet on that statistic remaining intact next season.

Aah yes. Next season.

The campaign when Liverpool have "no chance" of matching Chelsea in the Premiership.

Perhaps Reds fans will have to find new subjects for their "bitter Blues" jibe.

Mourinho moaned, with justification, that John Terry had been harshly penalised by Graham Poll for the game's pivotal opening goal.

True. But that overlooked the fact that Chelsea had also received the rub of the green from the officials seconds earlier - and didn't take advantage.

Didier Drogba was clearly offside when he raced clear on Reina's goal - and poked the ball woefully wide of it. Liverpool were not so wasteful a minute later when Riise bent a shot goalwards, Chelsea's wall parted and Liverpool had one foot in the final.

Chelsea's other main gripe involved Terry's disallowed goal. Again Riise was involved, and his reaction spoke volumes.

Terry may well have scored without the assistance of hands on Riise's shoulders, but that act prevented the Norwegian from taking off and the Liverpool defender's instant reaction showed he expected a free-kick to be awarded.

It was, despite Poll behaving as erratically as ever throughout an absorbing contest.

He escorted the substituted Luis Garcia off the pitch like a teacher dragging an errant pupil to the headmaster. It smacked of a referee screaming "notice me!"

His petty booking of Didier Drogba for trying to hurry up Pepe Reina at a goalkick meant we could hardly have missed him.

Fortunately, though, it was the footballers we noticed more.

Harry Kewell, more than most. And this time for all the right reasons.